Southeastern Film Critics Association Names ‘Anora’ as the Best Film of 2024. Writer-director Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning tale also snagged awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress for Mickey Madison’s breakout performance as a sex worker looking for a meaningful relationship in a world where love and sex often feel like nothing more than a transaction.
Monday, December 16, 2024 – The Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA) has named Sean Baker’s Anora as the Best Picture of the Year. SEFCA’s eighty-nine members located across nine Southeastern states also recognized Baker for Best Original Screenplay and the film’s star Mikey Madison for Best Actress.
While Anora won Best Film of 2024, The Brutalist, writer-director Brady Corbet’s epic of artistic obsession, carried home the most SEFCA awards. The film finished second to Anora for Best Film of the Year and was also honored with prizes for Best Actor (Adrian Brody), Best Supporting Actor (Guy Pearce) and Best Director for Corbet.
The single closest race was for Best Documentary. With only two ballots remaining to be tabulated, there was a three-way tie between Will & Harper, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story and Sugarcane. Ultimately, Sugarcane, a horrific tale that chronicles the disappearances of Native American children from a “residential school” near the Sugarcane Reservation, carried home the award.
“Every year we hear from the naysaying sectors of the industry that it wasn’t a very good year for film,” said Scott Phillips, President of SEFCA and writer for Forbes.com. “This slate of winners easily disproves that statement for 2024. Between theatrical distribution and streaming, releases can be a bit scattered and hard to find, but if you take the time to find the better films of 2024, they form a potent lineup. We hope that film fans out there can use our Top 10 list to catch up on some of the best that 2024 had to offer.”
Read SEFCA’s full list of winners below. Visit SEFCA on the web at SEFCA.net to learn more about its members as well as past winners. You can also follow SEFCA on Twitter at @SEFilmCritics.
When the votes were tallied the following top 10 films received the most votes from those that were watched by the members in 2024. !. Anora, 2. The Brutalist, 3. Conclave, 4. Dune Part 2 5. Challengers, 6. Nickel Boys, 6. Sing Sing, 8.Wicked, 9. The Substance, and 10. A Complete Unknown.
Best Actor
Winner: Adrian Brody, The Brutalist
Runner-Up: Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Best Actress
Winner: Mikey Madison, Anora
Runner-Up: Demi Moore, The Substance
Best Supporting Actor:
Winner: Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
Runner-Up: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Best Supporting Actress:
Winner: Ariana Grande, Wicked
Runner-up: Zoe Saldana, Emilia Perez
Best Ensemble:
Winner: Conclave
Runner-Up: Sing Sing
Best Director
Winner: Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
Runner-Up: Sean Baker, Anora
Best Original Screenplay
Winner: Sean Baker, Anora
Runner-Up: Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist
Best Adapted Screenplay
Winner: Peter Straughan, Conclave
Runner-Up: RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys
Best Documentary
Winner: Sugarcane
Runner-Up: Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Best Animated Film
Winner: The Wild Robot
Runner-Up: Flow
Best Foreign Language Film
Winner: Emilia Perez
Runner-Up: The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Best Cinematography
Winner: Grieg Fraser, Dune Part 2
Runner-Up: Jarin Blaschke, Nosferatu
Best Score
Winner: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Challengers
Runner-Up: Daniel Blumberg, The Brutalist
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
